Reading books on topics you know nothing about, also reading books that propose views with which you disagree, learn a new recipe, spend time with other minds and practice empathy, practice meta-cognition whenever possible. And cetera

Whenever I'm idle--which I try to minimize but is sometimes inevitable, especially when at work--I like to do stream of consciousness, conjuring up as many things as I can in my mind's eye. Sometimes what you imagine can reveal the contents of your subconscious.

Really? Whenever I'm idle, I like not thinking. It's far more enjoyable, and far more elucidatory, in my experience.

The modern world is so clustered with meaningless information that most people couldn't sit still if they tried. I imagine times of not-thinking evolved as a necessary byproduct of thinking, much in the way that dreams help defragment reality.

Aquarius, surely you recognise that not-thinking is a prerequisite for thinking? The state of not-thinking is the state of simply being. It is from this state that all thought arises, though, in the West, people are frequently overtaken by thinking, to the point where it seems "abnormal" to have moments (or even days) of silence.

I'm pretty much a novice at chess. It's a fun game though! I often find I do not have many people to play it with, however.

Here's something I do every once in a while. If I've got some free time, I'll sit and just think/daydream, and write what comes to my mind. Doesn't even matter if the words form sentences - I just see what words and things I come up with while "idling". This is sort of in the realm of what Traf' was saying. I'm unsure if this helps you mentally, but I think it's fun and you can learn a lot about your unconscious mind.

Aquarius, surely you recognise that not-thinking is a prerequisite for thinking? The state of not-thinking is the state of simply being. It is from this state that all thought arises, though, in the West, people are frequently overtaken by thinking, to the point where it seems "abnormal" to have moments (or even days) of silence.

Nice to see somebody sufficiently neolithic to 'get-it'. Modern man is an oaf. He thinks too much. And can not stop thinking. This oafishness is all about mindless mind-churning, not because it serves, but because it has become the default state. To learn to locate the off-switch is about as high a goal as humans can reach for. Having switched the mind off, he is ready to start (resume) living as he was intended to live. One is still able to think, but thinking is exponentially enhanced when one has a non-thinking state to compare thinking to. A silent mind is directly connected to reality. Connectedness is life.

Hearts is an interesting card game because instead of trying to get tricks yourself, you try to give points to your opponents. So it's sort of a reverse game. Of course if one player gets all the hearts plus the queen of spades, then all the other opponents get racked with points, that's the one exception, known as "shooting the moon." Shooting the moon is rare and riskier, but it's also what gives the "reverseness" of the game it's weight. A common strategy is to short suit yourself so you don't have to follow suit and thus pass off the cards to your opponent that you don't want. Great game.

Aquarius, surely you recognise that not-thinking is a prerequisite for thinking? The state of not-thinking is the state of simply being. It is from this state that all thought arises, though, in the West, people are frequently overtaken by thinking, to the point where it seems "abnormal" to have moments (or even days) of silence.

Nice to see somebody sufficiently neolithic to 'get-it'. Modern man is an oaf. He thinks too much. And can not stop thinking. This oafishness is all about mindless mind-churning, not because it serves, but because it has become the default state. To learn to locate the off-switch is about as high a goal as humans can reach for. Having switched the mind off, he is ready to start (resume) living as he was intended to live. One is still able to think, but thinking is exponentially enhanced when one has a non-thinking state to compare thinking to. A silent mind is directly connected to reality. Connectedness is life.

It actually hadn’t occurred to me in that order. Having been shat into a hyper-stimulated existence our brains basically know no better than to be constantly active. To not-think would require extensive re-wiring at this point. I shudder to think where that might take human evolution if there even is to be one.

Perhaps things like prayer and meditation developed for this very purpose, though I can’t say I’m at all familiar with the practice of either.

I'm pretty much a novice at chess. It's a fun game though! I often find I do not have many people to play it with, however.

It's the game of the gods. Infinitely simplistic in its complexity. A possible desert island necessity.

There used to be a few metal hall posters and infoterrorists that played the facebook chess application over five years ago now. I learned much from those games but have unfortunately gotten a bit sloppy of late.

Well aquarius, from what I've read not thinking is an advantage at all times. That's because it is not thinking too much, as a habit and when it is not necessary, not speaking things mentally like "This is good", "This is gonna suck" etc... Of course when you don't do that, other stuff will fill in. And that stuff is more perception of the present. It's like the difference between a photograph with a lot of black stains all around, and a clear one.

I do not speak by experience, but sometimes all of us have intuited this state and saw how great it might be and considered its possibilities if developed.

It's about not perceiving things with mental filters. There are thousands of images in our heads blurring things... I got an e-mail by the deathmetal.org crowd about helping the website. One of them said "HAIL DEMONCY FOR ETERNITY!" and I read for several days "HAIL DEMOCRACY FOR ETERNITY!"